Conduits, typically for fluids or electricity, require clipping to a substructure for retention purposes. Such conduits are often flexible and must be confined to follow a designated path between end attachment locations. For example a cable harness of a vehicle requires to be clipped around an engine bay so as to be connected to components without risk of straining, or damage from hot and/or moving components.
A typical cable clip comprises a moulded plastics component attached at a mounting location, for example a vehicle chassis, and to which a conduit is attached by e.g. snap-fitting. Such an arrangement allows the conduit to be removed and replaced when required, for example to give access to a component behind the conduit, but typically does not ensure that the conduit is replaced in precisely the same location. Clips with removable parts, such as screw-threaded components, are not desirable because of the risk of loss when disassembled. Problems also arise if the conduit has many branches, and the intended fitting path is forgotten between removal and replacement.
These problems may be mitigated by providing replacement clips and/or fixings, but this solution requires service personnel to be provided with the correct replacements, which in practice is not easy to arrange. Furthermore many different kinds of conduit clip are in use, and service personnel may not know what kind is to be encountered.
What is required is an inexpensive universal kind of conduit clip having the ability to be attached securely to a conduit, to be removable from the conduit if required, to be suitable for repeated attachment to a substructure without damage, and to be suitable for adaptation to a variety of fixing methods.